A powerful earthquake in Peru left one dead and 18 wounded (this was felt in Colombia)

The panic scenes of the population spread to the country's capital, Lima, located more than 800 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, where the population left in their pajamas on the streets, frightened by the rain.

"We reported the death of a person following the fall of a rock in his home in Huarango district, in the region of Cajamarca"Ricardo Seijas, civil defense coordinator, told the RPP radio.

The Peruvian official explained that after six hours of monitoring, he was reported 11 wounded, 51 families affected, 53 houses uninhabitable and five schools affected.

The epicenter of the earthquake, magnitude 8, according to the United States Geological Institute (USGS) and the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), was produced at 2:41 local (07H41 GMT) about 70 km southeast of Lagunas, northern Peru, 110 km deep by the first source and 141 km by the second.

Lagunas is a district of the province of Alto Amazonas, in the region of Loreto. Its population is 12 000 inhabitants.

The earthquake forced thousands of people from northern cities and the Peruvian jungle to leave the streets with the first thing at their disposal.

In the city of Rioja, a concert of the popular local ballad singer Ezio Oliva, attended by more than a thousand people, stopped abruptly.

A video reproduced on the Instagram network by the singer shows the frightened cries of the public who strives to leave the scene, amid calls for calm musician.

"I just have one of the biggest fears of my life, the earthquake surprised us in concert," wrote the singer on Instagram.

One of the most dramatic moments happened at the police station Yurimaguas, where the police chief shouted to his subordinates to leave the scene and rescue a dozen detainees.

"The earthquake is strong! I am ordering to open the cells! Help the detainees, get one each, bading!", is heard in a video that has become viral in networks and on television.

In addition to Loreto, the earthquake was felt in the northern and central regions of La Libertad, Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, San Martin and Cajamarca.

As a general rule, the larger the earthquake, the greater the impact or damage it causes to the surface are small. However, the expansive wave in these cases is more expansive, which explains why it was felt in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia.

The quake lasted 127 seconds and in Lima, the population was forced to leave their homes in the middle of the morning.

The Peruvian President, Martín Vizcarra, who went to the area, said the earthquake "hit the entire Peruvian jungle". "We are coordinating the creation of an airlift to transfer people in emergency."

"It's an earthquake of great magnitude, it's the strongest that has affected the country in the last 12 years", added the president before leaving for Yurimaguas, the city closest to the epicenter having suffered damage.

The last major earthquake in Peru was recorded on August 15, 2007 in the coastal region of Ica, with a magnitude of 7.9 degrees and more than 500 deaths.

Mayor Yurimaguas, Hugo Araujo, reported the collapse of several houses.

"There are a lot of old houses (built of rammed earth) that were shattered by this strong earthquake", detailed Araujo.

At the same time, the mayor of Lagunas, Arri Pezo, declared that the population did not want to return home for fear of new replicas of the powerful earthquake.

"You could not walk at the time of the earthquake, things were falling, we can not check if we have damage because there is no electricity", said Pezo on RPP radio.

Peru is, like its neighbors in the South American Pacific, Chile and Ecuador, in a very seismic region.

The earthquake affected neighboring Ecuador, where seven wounded were reported, power cuts in some border towns of the Amazon and minor disturbances. The earthquake was felt even in the coastal city of Guayaquil.

"Up to now, we have counted seven injured in total, all served by the public health system," said Ecuador's vice president, Otto Sonnenholzner, on his Twitter account.

In La Paz, Bolivia, the powerful earthquake was felt despite more than 1,300 kilometers from the epicenter, although slight damage was recorded.